A little backstory on Valentine’s Day for you all—it started out as a Roman holiday, back when they were pagans, of course. It was called Lupercalia, and it was a fertility and agricultural festival. The holiday was to honor Lupa, a she-wolf who, according to Roman mythology, had cared for and nursed two human twins—Romulus and Remus—after they had been abandoned in the wilderness. It is said that Romulus went on to found the city of Rome. Lupercalia was also dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, given that this was a good time of the year to start sowing seeds and praying for a good harvest at the end of the year.
The festival was a little unusual. Everyone would get drunk, which is not unlike nowadays when it comes to holidays, but the men would run around the city naked, with the skins of the animals that they had sacrificed for the festival. The women, on the other hand, would be covered in the animals’ blood, probably also naked. The men would whip the women with the animal hides. I should note that, according to history, it appears that the women were willing participants. Historians all have their own theories about why this exactly took place, but a commonly accepted answer is that it served as an initiation, a rite that marked a boy’s transition into adulthood through the use of “sexual play.” Men would also draw women’s names from a jar and the two would link up in the hopes of having a child.
Later, when Christianity came to Rome, it became a holiday for remembering Saint Valentine, who was martyred around this time. Believe it or not, not much is known about Saint Valentine. A story goes, however, that Emperor Claudius II did not allow soldiers to marry. Saint Valentine went against his orders and would secretly marry young couples to spare the men the horrors of war. He was then imprisoned, tortured, and eventually beheaded. Another story goes that he signed a letter “from your Valentine” to his jailer’s daughter, who he supposedly befriended and healed from blindness. You can see where Valentine’s cards probably came from.
Changing the subject from strange fertility rituals and Christian martyrs, this month, we have the Full Snow Moon rising into the winter sky on the 24th. Named so because February is historically the snowiest month of the year in the United States. It is also known as the Eagle Moon, Raccoon Moon, and Hungry Moon. The next meteor shower happens in April, so there’s nothing crazy happening in the night sky at all this month. Just the moon, which will be beautiful as always.
To those of you with birthdays this month, happy birthday! Even though lots of roses are given out this month, the birth flowers are actually the violet and the primrose. Like the violet, February’s birthstone is also purple; amethyst is this month’s stone of choice.
Overall, it’s hard to believe that January is already behind us, and that we’re now onto the second month of the year. It seems like just yesterday, we were ushering in the new year. Here’s to a wonderful, warm, and safe February for you all. May this month fill your life with peace, happiness, and love.
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